The present invention relates to a high speed digital recording and reproducing apparatus such as a video cassette recorder for duplicating the contents contained in a source tape in a number of target tapes.
Generally, in copying information by using magnetic tape as a recording medium, a reproducer for reproducing the contents from a source tape and a recorder for recording the contents on a target tape are required. Therefore, when the information contained in a source tape is duplicated in 100 units of target tape using one reproducer and 100 recorders, the duplication time corresponds to the recording time of the program on the source tape, but this technique consumes a significant amount of power. Meanwhile, when a one-hour length of source tape is duplicated in 100 units of target tape using one reproducer and one recorder, a total duplication time requires at least 100 hours, thereby requiring significant time and power consumption.